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Nova Scotia’s (N.S.’s) Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens have won best overall project at the 2012 Brownie Awards, which recognize excellence in remediation across Canada.

The controversial and hazardous site — now part of Cape Breton — had been home to a mill that churned out nearly half of Canada’s steel production in the early 1900s. The mill used coke ovens to allow for a fuel with few impurities and high carbon content. It left 99 hectares with more than a million tonnes of toxic sludge in the heart of the province.

In an October 2012 press release about the Tar Ponds win at the Brownie Awards, CUI states that “through extensive public consultation and stakeholder engagement, [the remediation project] has helped develop a future land use for the largest contaminated site in the country that is comprehensive and includes both short-term and long-term development strategies. This project has, and will continue to have, an important impact on the local economy, in addition to the health and environmental benefits.”

The Sierra Club of Canada once called the area the largest contaminated site in North America. For years, the Canadian Cancer Society warned that Nova Scotians suffered the highest rates of cancers in the country, with those in Cape Breton the highest in the province.

After years of delays, Public Works and Government Services Canada teamed up with the Nova Scotia government in 2007 to inject $400 million worth of remediation work into the Sydney Tar Ponds. The plan was to solidify the toxic sludge using a solidification/stabilization with cement method.

The first phase of the project was completed in mid-December 2009 and work continued with Phase 2 in the spring of 2010. Eventually the area will be covered with an impermeable barrier, soil, and finally grass.

Parts of the restored site may eventually be used for recreational purposes.

Project officials say the last section of an engineered cap of clay and soil will be installed at the tar Ponds by the end of November 2012, a full year ahead of schedule.

Up to $20 million has been set aside to develop the downtown recreation area, with an entertainment venue and parking in months and years to come.

FULL WINNERS LIST:

Best large-scale project: SOLEfood Farm, Vancouver, for interim brownfield use as urban agriculture.

Best small-scale project: Underpass Park, Toronto.

Public realm: Flood protection landform, Toronto.

Brownfielder of the year:Lois E. Jackson, Mayor of the Corporation of Delta, B.C. who has been a tireless and vocal advocate for brownfield issues as Mayor of Delta, as well as in her capacity as chair of Metro Vancouver.